Preamble to Our By-laws

The Peace and Freedom Party is an open, multi-tendency, movement-oriented socialist party. We are united in our common commitment to socialism, democracy, feminism and unionism and our common opposition to capitalism, imperialism, racism, sexism and elitism.

These by-laws do not define socialism, nor do they identify the strategies and tactics of how to achieve socialism. We agree that socialism is necessary and that it will open up a democratic decision-making process for appropriate use of resources and distribution of labor.

The Partisan (1994-2009)

The Partisan was the newspaper published by the Peace And Freedom Party State Central Committee and was published regularly from 1994 to 2009.

Who's Online

What is Socialism?

What is Socialism? A way to meet the needs of the majority

The Peace and Freedom Party, born from the civil rights and anti-war movements of the 1960s, is committed to socialism, democracy, ecology, feminism, racial equality, and internationalism.

The opening sentence of the Party platform has provoked questions such as, “Why are you for socialism?” or “What is socialism?” The answer is not simple, because the Peace and Freedom Party is a ‘multi-tendency’ party.” People from different organizations, as well as those without other affiliation, can be members of the Peace and Freedom Party.

We asked members of the PFP to provide their definition of socialism, both to answer the question and to illustrate the range of opinions within the party and the Socialist movement in general. Below runs the first in our series, “What is Socialism?”

••••••

Socialism is a way people organize themselves to meet the needs of the many, as opposed to Capitalism, which only meets the needs of the smallest percentage: the very rich.

To socialists the question, “How do we meet the needs of the overwhelming majority of people?” is an entire field of science put into practice daily. Socialism incorporates the skills of millions (and in some countries, billions) of working people, in order to accomplish the “simple” task of meeting the needs of the majority. Capitalists use the same tactics, but towards the opposite goal: to enrich themselves, individually, at the expense of the majority.

For socialism to function, working class and oppressed communities need to understand, defend, and incorporate it as a social and political system in their daily lives. This can be called “class consciousness.” The capitalists are already class conscious; they are fully aware that they exploit (rob) us on a daily basis in order to horde more wealth than at any other time in history.

To maintain control, the capitalist class needs to keep us divided. It’s our duty, therefore, to devote ourselves to building unity, solidarity and class consciousness for socialism to win.

–written by Joe Delaplaine

Support PFP campaigns with PayPal

Support our campaigns!

Donate to the Peace and Freedom Party campaign fund online by clicking the PayPal link above (PayPal membership is not required). Or make checks payable to "Peace and Freedom Party" and mail to

Donate to the Peace and Freedom Party registration drive fund online by clicking the PayPal link above (PayPal membership is not required). Or make checks payable to "PFP Registration Drive" and mail to

Social Networks

Voter Registration

In California, voter registration is very important to political parties. The very existence of a political party as "ballot-qualified" is determined by the number of votes its statewide candidates receive or by the number of voters registered with the party. As the only feminist socialist political party on the California ballot, it is imperative that the Peace and Freedom Party continues as a qualified party. Quite simply, the Peace and Freedom Party will not be able to provide Californians with candidates that will represent us unless we register and vote Peace and Freedom.